Cabell's Contributions to Books
CABELLIAN HARMONICS, by Warren A. McNeill
Hall Code |
Description |
Cabell Contribution(s) |
E9 / A15a |
First Printing, Special Binding 1928 |
A Note on Cabellian Harmonics |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: [device] [in italic] CABELLIAN | HARMONICS | By Warren A. McNeill | [rule] | [in italic] With an Introductory Note | by JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [Random House device in red] | [rule] | [in italic] New York | Published by Random House | 1928 (see image above).
Title page verso: COPYRIGHT 1928 BY RANDOM HOUSE · INC | PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (see image above).
Publication:
New York; Random House; September 1928.
Collation:
Royal octavo [ 24.6 cm. (9⅝ in.) x 16.5 cm. (6½ in.)]; pp. (ii) + 106; (i) half-title (verso blank); (1) title page; (2) publication data; (3) Contents (verso blank); pp. 5-7 A Note on Cabellian Harmonics (verso blank); pp. 9-103 text (verso blank); p. (104) colophon & limitation.
Binding:
Tooled pigskin with 5 raised bands on spine; gilt lettering on spine, front cover blank; top edge gilt, else untrimmed; Spine: [enclosed in a single ruled box between the top and second bands] CABEL- | LIAN | HARM- | ONICS | [at base of spine] 1928 (see image above).
Limitation:
[Random House device] | [device] [in italic] Fifteen hundred copies of this book have been printed for RANDOM HOUSE | New York, on Rittenhouse Laid paper by | Richard W. Ellis, The Georgian Press | in the month of September, 1928 | [double rule] On Dutch all-rag paper, a special edition | of eighteen copies, not for sale, of which | this is number [handwritten] 1 (see image above).
Dust jacket:
None seen.
Notes:
In his article "Cabellian Harmonics - Why and How?," McNeill makes it clear that the 18 copies of the special binding were not produced under his control, but by Random House, almost certainly at the direction of Bennett Cerf. He stated that he received one copy and Mr. Cabell another, but that he did not know to whom the remaining copies were presented. The Silver Stallion has examined two of the eighteen copies. Copy no. 11, the one given to Mr. Cabell, resides in the Cabell Room at the James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University. Copy no. 1, the example shown here, carries the bookplate of Walter Chrysler, founder of the Chrysler Corporation, and we presume that he was the original recipient.
